EA Lays Off Developers Across DICE, Criterion, and Battlefield Studios

Electronic Arts laid off an unknown number of developers across its four Battlefield Studios on March 9, 2026, cutting staff at DICE in Sweden, Criterion in the UK, Ripple Effect in California, and Motive in Canada in what the company described internally as a "realignment." All four studios will remain operational, though IGN's Rebekah Valentine, who broke the story, reported the cuts appear to be hitting a variety of teams across multiple offices within the Battlefield Studios group.

EA declined to specify how many employees were affected or which roles were targeted. When asked directly by both IGN and GamesIndustry.biz, a company spokesperson issued a single statement: "We've made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community. Battlefield remains one of our biggest priorities, and we're continuing to invest in the franchise, guided by player feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs."

The timing is striking. Battlefield 6 launched in October 2025 with a record-shattering 7 million copies sold in its first three days, making it the best-selling game in the United States for all of 2025 and the strongest franchise launch in Battlefield history. IGN gave its multiplayer an 8/10 at launch, though the campaign drew a more mixed critical response. The game also won Game of the Year at the UKIE Video Game Awards.

Since that opening surge, however, player engagement on Steam has collapsed sharply. Battlefield 6 peaked at 747,440 concurrent players on Steam at launch, according to SteamDB figures cited by GamesIndustry.biz. Its most recent 24-hour peak sat at just 67,080. By contrast, rival shooter Arc Raiders posted a 24-hour peak of 235,475 during the same window, down from its all-time peak of 481,966 but representing a far shallower drop-off. Insider Gaming noted that the game "started slipping substantially in the weeks that followed its release."

Developer anxiety was already on record before the layoffs landed. Prior reporting in February 2026 described Battlefield 6's teams as acutely aware of the make-or-break nature of each successive update to the game's live-service roadmap.

The cuts arrive in the middle of an already turbulent period for EA and the Battlefield franchise specifically. Vince Zampella, who led the Battlefield franchise, was killed in a car accident in the months before the layoffs were reported. EA is also in the process of being acquired by an investor consortium comprising Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for approximately $55 billion, a deal EA's shareholders approved in late 2025. That transaction has not yet closed; IGN reports it is expected to complete in the first quarter of EA's 2027 financial year, covering April, May, and June of this year. EA told IGN internally that the layoffs are unrelated to the pending acquisition.

Game Informer characterized the March 9 cuts as the first instance of mass layoffs at EA in 2026. The context inside 2025 alone was already grim: EA shut down Cliffhanger Games and cancelled its in-development Black Panther game, laid off 100 employees at Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment, and in 2024 cut over 650 jobs company-wide. GamesIndustry.biz also noted recent redundancies at Full Circle, the studio developing Skate.

The total number of developers affected by the Battlefield Studios realignment remains undisclosed, and neither EA nor any of the four studios provided a breakdown by office or role as of the time of reporting.